Cloud Service Management and Operations

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Within the newly formed Cloud Architecture and Solution Engineering (CASE) organization in IBM Cloud, I lead the work steam for Cloud Service Management and Operations. I wanted to provide an update on the work performed in this work stream. The intended audience is anyone that has an interest in either Bluemix or Service Management and want to see how the two worlds come together to provide a managed PaaS foundation.

First of all a few sentences on the name of the work stream: Cloud Service Management and Operations (CSMO). Initially the name was IT Service Management (ITSM), but there were a few shortcomings that we had to address. First of all ITSM is frequently considered old-fashioned and strongly aligned to the traditional way of on-premise IT. We had to convey the change and relevance towards cloud. Then, too many people did consider Operations as another aspect of Service Management. While we could argue that Service Management does already include Operations, less ITIL-centric people may feel that Operations is something different. Next we have to include the focus on “Services” instead of components / systems / cloud / applications. And last but not least we had to throw in the name Cloud – just like everyone else. Hence the term CSMO.

In the CSMO work stream, we are working on several angles

Solution Architecture – develop a point of view of the service management aspects for solutions running in the cloud. We make this architecture available on the IBM Architecture Center.

Solution Engineering – setup environments to build and validate aspects of this solution. These steps are documented in a prescriptive way and we make documents and assets available for consumption.

Client Engagements – engage directly with signature clients to validate and refine our point of view, learn from the experience of these early adopters and develop offerings and supporting material to replicate these engagements.

Bluemix Garage for Service Management – build a Service Management spin-off of the Bluemix Garage as one way to make the experience from CASE available is. While the Bluemix Garage is focusing on transformation of Development towards DevOps (DEVops), this offering will be focusing on the transformation of Operations towards DevOps (devOPS).

“We” is a team of people dedicated to CASE, plus a voluntary army of field experts from IBM Lab Services, Technical Sales and Support. We are happy to provide the work in the form of rotation and re-skilling via short-term assignment, supported by the business executives of Cloud Delivery and Technical Sales. In order to scale, we will be working closely with CATE (Client Adoption and Technical Enablement) to build formal offerings and work on enablement plans.

As you can imagine, lots of work in front of us. I will try to document our journey in this Blog. Please engage with me in conversations, either by commenting on this blog or by reaching out to me directly.